Jonathan Gold Reviews Hannosuke and Ramen Iroha

The Goldster is right. "In Los Angeles, your next great meal could be anywhere," and this week he pens an ode to Hannosuke and Ramen Iroha which, he immediately clarifies, are "the Japanese equivalents of hot dog stands and burger shacks," located in LA supermarket food courts.

And, in fact, the tendon at Hannosuke is a less than overwhelming sight, a mass of tawny fried food heaped on a bowl of rice. If you have been lucky enough to have tasted tempura at a specialist, you may be nonplused at first by the stuff ... it's still really crunchy, and when you bite into a slice of sweet potato or a mass of baby shrimp, the roasty, nutty flavors of the sesame oil used for frying and the inner sweetness of the food really come through ... the tendon is perfect in its way.

The black ramen, dense, chewy noodles, come in a chicken broth that gets its tar-like hue from soy sauce, fermented black beans and a slug of black pepper. You might expect the black broth to be intensely salty, like shoyu, or as sludgy as a bowl of Chinese cha chiang mian, but it is much subtler than it looks, edged with a slight bitterness that you realize is probably one of the dominant flavors in soy sauce.

The Elsewhere: CoC drinks at Casa del Mar, e*star LA dines at Huckleberry, Eat:LA does Sushi Ike, OCR eats at RJ's Café, Refined Palate hits Milo & Olive, The Amateur Gourmet talks about Pizzeria Mozza, and The Unemployed Eater picks Westside Tavern.